Coffeemaker recommendations?

[Grace62]

We have the Cuisinart Brew Central DCC1200 and love it. I usually only make 4 cups at a time and I like strong coffee. Does a great job and keeps the coffee hot, but not burned, with a glass carafe. It's programmable and has temp control for the carafe.
Very easy to clean.

[testcase]

I love the Cusinart Grind~n~Brew I bought over a year ago. Glass 12 cup carafe (very easy to clean), has a clock / timer so it can be set up the night before. I had been using a Black & Decker unit and was grinding whole beans in an electric grinder. The Cusinart makes noticably better coffee (I'm using the same coffee, paper filters and tap water. The only difference is the coffee maker.) My unit is black plastic and brushed stainless steel. I got it as a refurb for just under $30 delivered (retails around $150)! I was so happy that I picked up a second refurb just to have spare parts.

:coffee:

[AllGold]

Just don't get a Mr. Coffee. Every Mr. Coffee I've had has died a premature death.

[JEBB]

I recently visited my son and then my daughter. Both had expensive coffee makers. Honestly neither one made coffee that tasted any better than what my 12 cup Mr. Coffee turns out. Their is nothing magical about pouring hot water over coffee grounds to extract the flavoring. If the pot seems to get overheated on the burner, put a few pennies on the burner to lift the pot. My daughters coffee maker had a grinder built in. It seemed rather like a Rube Goldberg contraption.

[Sam3]

We have a Bunn that we absolutely love and has been quite dependable. I want to say that I've had it for about 30 years, and it's still going strong. I brew a pot, sometimes two, a day. I certainly feel that I have gotten my $100 worth out of it. It's not automated because it brews coffee in 3-5 minutes (depending on what water spray head is used). Sometimes if I know I'll be rushing in the moring, I place the ground coffee in the basket and get water ready for it the night before. Then when I get up, I pour in the water and by the time I'm ready, the coffee is ready.

Bunn does make one with a thermal carafe as well.

[Wailer]

JEBB wrote:
I recently visited my son and then my daughter. Both had expensive coffee makers. Honestly neither one made coffee that tasted any better than what my 12 cup Mr. Coffee turns out. Their is nothing magical about pouring hot water over coffee grounds to extract the flavoring. If the pot seems to get overheated on the burner, put a few pennies on the burner to lift the pot. My daughters coffee maker had a grinder built in. It seemed rather like a Rube Goldberg contraption.

I agree. I usually buy a Mr. Coffee when I see them on sale for $10. They have to have the auto shutoff but I timer delay isn't necessary. Mine usually last about 4 or 5 years before the heating pad flakes away or the pump gets clogged. I have a few extra glass coffee pots around so that when I inevitably break one, I just pull a brand new one down.

I'd feel pretty cheated if a $100 coffee maker died after a few years.

[Mike Johnson]

I replaced my Braun with a Mr. Coffee and oh my gosh it sucks. It's like the designers never used a decent coffee maker. Unfortunately, Braun no longer makes the FlavorSelect model. So yeah, Cuisinart or whatever, but not Mr. Coffee.

The Braun had a carbon filter -- a big thing that held about 6 ounces of carbon. The Mr. Coffee has a tiny, silver dollar sized carbon pad. The Braun, you could pop the top of the carafe and reach in and clean it well. The Mr. Coffee it's hard to reach in, and stuff gets under the handle and band, and you just can't clean it. The Braun had a decent, easy, digital timer. The Mr. Coffee has this digital timer that's supposed to look like an analog clock and I can never tell if I'm setting it correctly because it's not obvious what's AM and what's PM. The Braun fit under my cabinets, but I have to pull Mr. Coffee to the front of the counter so I can fill it with water. The Braun made it easy to pour in water, and the Mr. Coffee has a tight little tube and then they want you to put a grid on top of it and water splashes everywhere. The Braun you could decide whether the hotplate should stay on 15 minutes or 1 hr 22 minutes or 4 hours; Mr. Coffee gives you no such choice. And the Mr. Coffee takes a lot longer to brew a pot.

My mom has a Cuisinart with a stainless thermal carafe. I don't like it for the reasons Winston shared.

[Gutenberg]

I have a four-cup Mr. Coffee that has lasted five years so far and makes excellent coffee. I think coffee and coffeemakers are the very illustration of chacun a son gout.

[Mac-A-Matic]

Check out the Technivorm. It has what you want it to do with all the convenience.

Then you can spring for the $13 coffee they had on cnn.com yesterday!

[Fritz]